Films -2024/25 Season
13 September 2024
1976
Chile 2022 100 minutes
Directed by Manuela Martelli
Life goes on for the privileged class three years after Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet seized power – or does it? Doctor’s wife Carmen heads to her weekend home and is approached by the parish priest, who’s hiding a wounded man from the “Resistance”. Will she risk everything to help the young man?
27 September
Manon des Sources
France 1986 120 minutes
Directed by Claude Berri
Can anything match the pathos and intensity of Jean de Florette, which left BFS members sobbing last season? Well…yes. Claude Berri’s adaptation of the Pagnol sequel captures the tragedy of the Provencal tale and reveals its brutal irony. Powerful performances evoke a world of sorrow.
11 October
Family Romance, LLC (plus AGM)
Japan 2019 89 minutes
Directed by Werner Herzog
Imagine what it would be like to rent family members to fill in awkward gaps in your own family. Werner Herzog (who else?) has written and directed a film with that very premise. The Japanese-set story follows the owner of just such a rental firm, who somehow seems to succeed a bit more than expected. A provocative film that toys with notions of truth and artifice.
25 October
Cairo Conspiracy
Egypt 2022 120 minutes
Directed by Tarik Saleg
Fisherman’s son Adam is offered the chance to study at Cairo’s most prestigious university, which is also the beating heart of Sunni Islam in Egypt. The death of the university’s religious leader sweeps the young innocent into a threatening world of religious and political intrigue. Tawfeek Barhom delivers a stunning performance as the provincial cast adrift.
8 November
Lunana: A Yak in the Classroom
Bhutan 2019 110 minutes
Directed by Pawo Choyning Dorji
BFS’s first Bhutanese film is a moving tale of a young teacher’s arrival in a remote mountain village and the overwhelming reception he receives. Imagine “To Sir With Love” without Lulu but with – yes – a yak in the classroom. The effect is life-affirming and powerful.
22 November
The Blue Caftan
Morocco 2022 123 minutes
Directed by Maryam Touzani
All seems settled in the titular Blue Caftan, a traditional shop run by a husband and wife in the medina of Sale, Morocco. Settled, that is, until the arrival of a handsome young apprentice. Emotional cross-currents soon rise to the surface with the young man’s presence threatening the marriage in unexpected ways. Essentially a three-hander, the film breaks free of the confines of the shop to touch universal themes.
13 December
Mid-August Lunch
Italy 2008 75 minutes
Directed by Gianni Di Gregorio
Pranzo di Ferragosto, in the original Italian, is much more evocative than the English title (generated by AI?) of this wry film. “Mid-August”, of course, is the 15 August Feast of the Assumption of Mary, when Romans decamp to the country for a few days. Except, that is, for middle-aged Gianni, who can clear his debts if he agrees to look after his landlord’s elderly mother – and her friends — during the Ferragosto. It seems like a small price to pay. Or is it??
10 January 2025
Hyenas
Senegal 1992 110 minutes
Directed by Djibril Diop Mambéty
Cleverly transporting Swiss-German Friedrich Dürrenmatt’s play The Visit to west Africa, director Mambéty draws out the universal in a story that at first glance seems parochial. An ageing, wealthy matron – “as rich as the World Bank” – revisits the village of her birth with a proposition for the locals. In exchange for parting with some of her fortune, she’s looking for someone to settle an old score – permanently. In the words of one critic, “Funnier and warmer than Dürrenmatt ever dared to be but with the tale’s bleak, ominous edges still in evidence.”
24 January
Under the Fig Trees
Tunisia 2021 92 minutes
Directed by Erige Sehiri
There’s an unexpected feeling of a Turgenev short story in this naturalistic look at a single day in the life of villagers – young and old, men and women – at work at the summer fig harvest. The gentle rhythm of the snatched conversations, shy flirtation and poignant reminiscing make us feel as though we’re eavesdropping behind one of the orchard trees. The cinematography captures the dappled shade and shafts of sunlight of a day lovingly preserved.
7 February
The Commitments
Ireland/UK 1991 119 minutes
Directed by Alan Parker
Alan Parker’s adaptation of Roddy Doyle’s publishing debut captures the exuberance of the original’s story of unemployed Dubliners giving their all as “the hardest-working band in the world” – the Commitments. With tunes as strong as those in the Blues Brothers, but with more authenticity than its Hollywood counterpart, the film “strikes a chord” with anyone with heart.
21 February
An Autumn Afternoon
Japan 1962 113 minutes
Directed by Yasujiro Ozu
In praising director Ozu as a genius, and An Autumn Afternoon as a masterpiece, critic Roger Ebert noted the essence of its awareness of humanity: “We are here, we hope to be happy, we want to do well, we are locked within our aloneness, life goes on.” It’s hard to find a novel or film that reveals those truths as beautifully – and with such subtlety – as this classic of cinema, which was released a year before the director’s death.
7 March
Pain and Glory
Spain 2019 113 minutes
Directed by Pedro Almodovar
Almodovar – as usual – doesn’t put a foot wrong as he tells (“paints” might be a better verb) a story of a director confronting memories and decisions that he’s made through the course of his life and career. A museum’s appraisal of his work triggers his rumination about success and failure.
21 March
Land and Freedom
UK 1995 109 minutes
Directed by Ken Loach
Ken Loach’s Spanish Civil War film is told as one long flashback as a discovered cache of letters reveals a bittersweet story of an idealistic young man who travels from Liverpool to the Spanish front, where he encounters comradeship, violence, heartache, and painful loss.
4 April
The Worst Person in the World
Norway 2021 121 minutes
Directed by Joachim Trier
This Norwegian comedy (yes!) was a hit at the Academy Awards, just missing out on a Best Original Screenplay Oscar. It’s a freewheeling drama taking us through four years of a young woman’s life, negotiating events without a seat belt.
